The place of upper gastrointestinal tract endoscopy before and after vertical banded gastroplasty for morbid obesity.

In industrialized countries, surgical gastroplasty is performed more and more frequently in patients with morbid obesity. The aims of this prospective study were to determine the incidence of upper gastrointestinal lesions in obese patients and to assess the place of digestive endoscopy in symptomatic patients after gastroplasty. A consecutive group of 159 obese patients were studied before and after vertical banded gastroplasty. In the preoperative evaluation, reflux esophagitis and gastroduodenal lesions were endoscopically observed in 31% and 37% of the patients, respectively. Interestingly, the majority of the obese patients with upper gastrointestinal lesions were asymptomatic. In the postoperative follow-up period, 55 of the 159 patients complained of upper gastrointestinal symptoms such as vomiting (72%), esophageal reflux (17%), and epigastric pain (3%). Stenosis of the outlet of the gastric pouch was described in 40 of the 55 symptomatic patients. Esophagitis was observed in 60% of these patients. Endoscopic dilation using Savary bougies or TTS balloon was successfully performed in all the patients with symptomatic stenosis of the gastric outlet. Food impaction was endoscopically removed in four patients. Thus, we recommend performing an upper gastrointestinal endoscopy in obese patients who are candidates for surgical gastroplasty because of the high incidence of upper gastrointestinal peptic lesions. Endoscopy is also helpful in patients with digestive disorders occurring after gastroplasty in order to define and to treat the lesions.

Prognostic evaluation of patients with parenchymal cirrhosis. Proposal of a new simple score.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The current shortage of organs makes it desirable to establish the prognosis of patients with cirrhosis in order to assess priority for liver transplantation. METHODS: We compared the utility of two exogenous tests (aminopyrine breath test and lidocaine metabolization test), two clinical parameters (encephalopathy, ascites), 18 endogenous tests and five scores (Pugh, Merkel, Orrego, Adler, Pignon) for predicting 1-year mortality in patients with parenchymal cirrhosis. Retrospective (n=49 out of 63 patients) and prospective (n=38 out of 46 patients) series were included. Univariate, multivariate, receiver operator curves and survival curves were employed. RESULTS: We found that endogenous tests were more discriminant than exogenous tests. The best parameters of the univariate analysis (encephalopathy, bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase, cholinesterase and bile acids) and their 25th and 75th percentiles were included in an additive new score which turned out to be superior to the five other scores. Prospectively, the sensitivity of our new score compared to the Pugh score was 82% versus 95% (NS) and the specificity was 89% versus 56% (p<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Our new simple score appears to be very powerful for predicting prognosis at 1 year for patients with cirrhosis and should be evaluated in other centers.

Early defibrillation by EMTs: the Brussels experience.

Considering that in Brussels the first-aid ambulance team reaches the patient in cardiac arrest 10 min before the physician-manned ambulance, we instituted a feasibility study of early defibrillation by emergency medical technicians (EMTs). Three hundred EMTs received a 20-h automatic external defibrillation (AED) training course followed by a refresher course every 6 months. Of 316 cardiac arrests included in this study, asystole was encountered in 53% and ventricular fibrillation/ventricular tachycardia (VF/VT) in 33% of the cases on arrival of the EMTs. In the VF/VT group, defibrillation was performed by EMTs with a Laerdal Heartstart 7-9 min before the medical team arrived. The overall cardiac arrest survival rate improved from 7% in 1989 to 19% in 1992. However, the long-term survival rate (14/105) of ventricular fibrillation remained low because of excessive delays in emergency medical service (EMS) access and in early ACLS. In conclusion, this work shows that in Brussels: (1) early defibrillation of cardiac arrest victims in VF is feasible by EMTs when a training and a follow-up program are implemented; (2) the weakest link of the chain of survival is the early EMS access, and the early ACLS; and (3) AED program increases the interest and the efficacy of EMTs and medical teams in the management of cardiac arrests.

[Ewing's sarcoma: literature review and presentation of 4 cases]. / Le sarcome d'Ewing: revue de littérature et présentation de quatre cas.

Ewing's sarcoma occurs most often in young males of caucasian type and affects the medio-diaphysis of a long bone of the lower extremity, the pelvis and the humerus. Radiologically there is bone destruction, onion skin appearance, a Codman triangle and extension into the surrounding soft tissues. Microscopically, this tumor is composed of small round cells and it can be differentiated from non Hodgkin lymphoma, metastatic neuroblastoma and embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma. Recent immunological studies suspect a neuroectodermal origin. Ewing's sarcoma growths rapidly and spreads to lung and other bone locations. Without treatment, survival at 5 years is less than 5%. The actual therapeutic approach is multidisciplinary including surgery, chemotherapy and if necessary radiotherapy. With this approach actual survival rates at 5 years reaches 75%.